@hollymahaffey Mike McGuire of St. Louis has a souvenir from his adolescence most people can only dream about – his 1929 Ford Model A Cabriolet Convertible.
‘My dad bought the car for me in 1958,’ said McGuire.
McGuire has a photograph blown up from his 1958 yearbook, his graduation year, of cheerleaders driving his car in the Homecoming Parade, the grainy images of smiling young faces immortalizing his car in print.
Click here for more photos of McGuire and his 1929 Ford Model A Cabriolet
‘The cheerleaders borrowed the car for the Alma Homecoming, and one of the cheerleaders drove the car,’ said McGuire. ‘A guy I met out in Sumner brought me a disc and somehow he had an 8mm film that had this car in the parade; it shows 10 seconds of it. I was kind of happy to get that,’ he said.
After McGuire graduated from high school he joined the National Guard, and then graduated from a two-year course in auto service.
‘I worked in Flint, Detroit, and Alma and St. Louis area,’ said McGuire. ‘During most of that time, the car was in storage and I couldn’t work on it much.’
‘About 1999 or 2000 I started putting the car back together; it had been taken apart,’ McGuire said. ‘I worked out of town on the pipeline so I was only home weekends and worked on it a little bit on the weekends.’
McGuire retired from Wolverine Pipeline in 2007. ‘After I retired I was able to work on it on a more steady basis,’ McGuire said.
McGuire rebuilt the Model A with a 1996 4.3 liter Chevrolet V6 Vortec engine and automatic transmission. ‘It has power steering, power brakes and AC,’ said McGuire.
‘I kind of built the frame, and most of the mechanical things that went along with it,’ McGuire said.
The rumble seat in the back of the car is motorized, and folds out with the push of a button for two extra seats. The gas cap is hidden under his custom license plate which reads ’29MYWAY.’
‘Most of the parts were acquired from a salvage yard,’ said McGuire. ‘Some parts came from local auto stores but most from the local salvage yard, in Merrill.’
‘Everything is done by hand — you paint and scrub and clean,’ McGuire said.
McGuire made the steering wheel himself. ‘It has a wooden steering wheel, it’s walnut,’ said McGuire. He has ‘Michael D. McGuire, 2000’ engraved on the wheel.
‘I kind of built the frame, most of the mechanical things that went along with it. The upholstery I had done. John Boak did it,’ McGuire said. ‘My friend Jack Cross he did the painting for me.’
After McGuire retired and got his car rebuilt, he and his wife took the Model A on a road trip of epic proportions. ‘We took Route 66 from Grant Park in Chicago to L.A. I wanted to be in Pomona outside of LA on Father’s Day 2008 for the L.A. Roadster Show,’ said McGuire.
‘To be in the L.A. Roadster Show you have to have 1938 or older Roadster or Convertible. Cabriolet or Convertible, as they call them, so I qualified,’ said McGuire. He has a silver cup commemorating his experience at the show.
Neither McGuire nor his wife had been to California before, so on their way to the Roadster Show they meandered their way through all the tourist traps on the old Route 66, took a detour to the Grand Canyon, took a detour to the Hoover Dam, and drove down the Las Vegas strip before heading back to Route 66 and continuing to L.A.
‘All the little things you see along the road, like tourist traps, you stop and look at this stuff,’ McGuire said with a smile.
After the Roadster Show, the McGuires continued their tour of the country in the refurbished Model A. ‘We went down to San Diego, and we went to Sequoia National Forest, Yosemite, Golden Gate, the Redwoods — all the way up to Washington. We stopped in Oregon and saw Spruce Goose, Howard Hugh’s flying boat. Then we brought Highway 2 back across the top, back to Michigan.’
‘That was my retirement vacation,’ said McGuire. The trip had extra meaning for McGuire because it was the last trip he was able to take with his wife before illness caused her to move into a nursing home.
‘That was a really nice retirement, to be able to do that. And be able to do that with a car I put together, to me was really nice,’ said McGuire.
McGuire participates most Thursday nights in ‘Cruisin’ the Pix’ car show at the Pixie restaurant in Mt. Pleasant. ‘You get to know each other at the Pixie,’ said McGuire. ‘They’ve been really nice up there, I think anyway.’
Once, McGuire was getting gasoline and a young girl asked him if the car was older than her. ‘I said yes it’s a ’29. She said ‘wow that’s really old,” said McGuire. ‘The car’s old enough that the younger kids ask me what it is. Made from 28-31. All made by Henry Ford.’
Holly Mahaffey is the Morning Sun Community Engagement Producer. She may be reached at 989-779-6063, hmahaffey@michigannewspapers.com, or follow her on Facebook at facebook.com/holly.mahaffey.
